Who's No. 1: Once-Beaten Baylor - Loser Only to UW
The Washington basketball team is nowhere to be found in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Or is it?
Baylor leapfrogged Gonzaga this week as the nation's No. 1 college team (see poll here), as in the same Big 12 outfit that lost to the Huskies 67-64 two and a half months ago in Anchorage, Alaska.
The Bears are 15-1, beaten this season only by Mike Hopkins' up-and-down, freshman-heavy crew.
"We've shown we can play with anyone and beat anyone," Hopkins said.
Gonzaga, for that matter, is 20-1 and ranked second. If you remember, the Zags were pressed hard into the final minute by Washington (12-7 overall, 2-4 Pac-12) in early December before pulling away for an 83-76 win in Seattle.
Ranked No. 12 is Oregon (15-4), which escaped with a 64-61 overtime victory over the Huskies in Alaska Airlines Arena on Saturday, with the Ducks overcoming a 16-point, second-half deficit.
And at No. 25 is Houston (14-4), which rallied from a 14-point, first-half deficit to defeat the UW 75-71 on Christmas Day in Honolulu, Hawaii.
So near, yet so far for the Huskies, a small consolation.
"Last year, we were winning those games," lamented Hopkins after the Oregon setback, which came on Payton Pritchard's last-second 3-pointer. "We've just got to get better."
